Fascinating though heavy-going political thriller (quite unusual for a British production of its time) about little-known events it's set in 1908 Turkey during the final years in the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II; the overall treatment (this is one of obscure Austrian director Grune's last films) is somewhat stilted but pictorially impressive nonetheless. Though the film is bogged down by the romantic contrivances, making it feel longish, there is still plenty of intrigue going on to hold one's interest with even some effectively ironic cross-cutting between pompous parades and vicious assassinations several decades before THE GODFATHER (1972)'s celebrated climax!
Fritz Kortner turns in another powerful, albeit thoughtful and more controlled, performance (or, rather, two as he also plays the titular character's actor double!); abetting him are Nils Asther (a fine performance of sleek villainy as Abdul's ambitious Chief Of Police incidentally, he had himself just played a villainous ruler in Frank Capra's marvelous THE BITTER TEA OF GENERAL YEN [1933] with which this film shares some similarities) and statuesque Adrienne Ames (as a visiting Austrian singer who attracts the lustful eye of many a man, including the Sultan himself I knew her best from the classic W.C. Fields comedy YOU'RE TELLING ME! [1934]). The supporting cast, then, includes the likes of Esme' Percy (as the Sultan's aide, a eununch!), Walter Rilla, Patric Knowles, George Zucco and Eric Portman.
Apparently, this was cut down from the original 111 minutes (the DVD version actually runs for 108) to a mere 79 minutes for American theatrical release. Finally, one must thank VCI for making such a rare item as ABDUL THE DAMNED (whose brief complimentary review in the Leslie Halliwell Film Guide I'd been reading for years) available even if only as a bonus feature on their Deluxe Edition of CHU-CHIN-CHOW (1934). However, I was irked by the sloppy disc production involved: the worst offender is an annoyingly long pause prior to every chapter (something I've never encountered before and which also affects the shorter version of CHU-CHIN-CHOW, retitled ALI BABA NIGHTS, on the second DVD of this 3-Disc Set)! Besides, the actor bios are not given sufficient time to register and could only be read by pausing them; then, once they're over, the disc doesn't return one automatically to the main menu I had to press the "Stop" and "Menu" buttons on my remote control in order to access the next item...wtf?!
Fritz Kortner turns in another powerful, albeit thoughtful and more controlled, performance (or, rather, two as he also plays the titular character's actor double!); abetting him are Nils Asther (a fine performance of sleek villainy as Abdul's ambitious Chief Of Police incidentally, he had himself just played a villainous ruler in Frank Capra's marvelous THE BITTER TEA OF GENERAL YEN [1933] with which this film shares some similarities) and statuesque Adrienne Ames (as a visiting Austrian singer who attracts the lustful eye of many a man, including the Sultan himself I knew her best from the classic W.C. Fields comedy YOU'RE TELLING ME! [1934]). The supporting cast, then, includes the likes of Esme' Percy (as the Sultan's aide, a eununch!), Walter Rilla, Patric Knowles, George Zucco and Eric Portman.
Apparently, this was cut down from the original 111 minutes (the DVD version actually runs for 108) to a mere 79 minutes for American theatrical release. Finally, one must thank VCI for making such a rare item as ABDUL THE DAMNED (whose brief complimentary review in the Leslie Halliwell Film Guide I'd been reading for years) available even if only as a bonus feature on their Deluxe Edition of CHU-CHIN-CHOW (1934). However, I was irked by the sloppy disc production involved: the worst offender is an annoyingly long pause prior to every chapter (something I've never encountered before and which also affects the shorter version of CHU-CHIN-CHOW, retitled ALI BABA NIGHTS, on the second DVD of this 3-Disc Set)! Besides, the actor bios are not given sufficient time to register and could only be read by pausing them; then, once they're over, the disc doesn't return one automatically to the main menu I had to press the "Stop" and "Menu" buttons on my remote control in order to access the next item...wtf?!